Der Orchideengarten ( Garden of Orchids)

Cyril Tourneur

Cyril Tourneur

Grimscribe
Some days ago, I discovered a magazine which activated my collector's instincts


Der Orchideengarten ('Garden of Orchids'; subtitled Phantastische Blatter or 'Fantastic Pages') was a Munich, German magazine that appeared for 51 issues from January, 1919 until November, 1921. Founded four years before the American magazine Weird Tales was launched in March 1923, it is hailed as the first fantasy magazine. Also described as largely 'supernatural horror', it was edited by World War I correspondent and freelance writer Karl Hans Strobl and Alfons von Czibulka, published by Dreiländerverlag. It had 24 pages per issue printed on rough book paper.


The magazine included a wide selection of fantastic stories by famous foreign authors such as Dickens, Pushkin, Charles Nodier, Maupassant, Poe, Voltaire, Gautier, Washington Irving, Hawthorne, H. G. Wells, Victor Hugo, and Karel and Josef Capek. Illustrations included works by Gustave Dore, Tony Johannot, Rolf von Hoerschelmann, Otto Linnekogel, Karl Ritter, Heinrich Kley, and Alfred Kubin.



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A Journey Round My Skull: The World's First Fantasy Magazine - Der Orchideengarten

the black sun: The Garden of Orchids
 
This is a great find, Tobias. I love this kind of stuff. Has anyone out there read anything by Karl Hans Strobl? I would be interested in an opinion or two. I'll have to check the black sun blog from time to time. It looks like an informative and entertaining site.
 
I've heard about Orchideengarten from an introduction to one of Strobl's collections of stories, but have never seen a cover of that mag. Thanks for mentioning it, Tobias.

Strobl's tales of macabre are also recommendable.
 
Was fascinated by the Orchideengarten covers reproduced in Franz Rottensteiner's The Fantasy Book years ago, but I've never even seen a copy offered for sale, and I suspect they're very rare indeed. Anyone else had any more luck?

I've seen a solitary Strobl tale in English, included in the Dedalus Book of Austrian Fantasy - not sure if there were ever any more?
 
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Soukesian said:
Was fascinated by the Orchideengarten covers reproduced in Franz Rottensteiner's The Fantasy Book years ago, but I've never even seen a copy offered for sale, and I suspect they're very rare indeed. Anyone else had any more luck?

I've seen a solitary Strobl tale in English, included in the Dedalus Book of Austrian Fantasy - not sure if there were ever any more?
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it sounds as a good idea to me to contact 'Anarchistbanjo' for doing a translation (maybe I should write him a PM and send him a copy and offer my help); from what I've seen he has done a great job with the Ewers stories at Side Real Press and that blog entry shows that they are interested in doing a publication....
 
It seems Joe is already hard at work on Strobl: google 'scribd strobl' for his translation of The Bogumil Stone
 
It occurs to me that an anthology of newly-translated tales from Der Orchideengarten would be a very fine thing to have - ideally with a generous selection of original illustrations!
 
I've also been searching for Orchideengarten issues and Strobl books since seeing the Journey/Skull post and reading the Strobl tales in the Dedalus collection (I seem to remember two Strobl stories- I think there were 2 different edition of the Dedalus collection, with slightly different contents...)

There was a bound collection of Orchideengarten issues on Abebooks recently for several thousand dollars, as far as I know it's still there...

There was apparently an English Strobl book (a collection, I think) called "The Shadow Husband" published in London in 1930 which I have never seen for sale online.

The closest I have come in the Strobl hunt was some German editions on Abebooks which were part of Forrest Ackerman's collection, much of which went for sale online after his death in 2008 (I declined to buy them as I don't read German, though I once popped for a German edition of Doblin's untranslated and magnificently titled quasi-SF novel "Berge, Meere, und Giganten" (Mountains, Seas, and Giants.) Abebooks still lists Forry's copy of the Doblin novel for about 10 bucks.)

I will check out Bandel's Strobl translation(s). I have been following his Ewers translations, which are greatly appreciated if a bit rough at times. I have his Lulu Ewers collection and I think that his work on Ewers' early tales (The Crucified Minstrel, Delphi) is stronger. Maybe Ewers' style got more difficult as his career progressed?

Speaking of Ewers, did anyone else notice that the Runa Raven Ewers collection just came back into print? Check out their site.
 
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Hi everyone!
NIce to see a thread on Karl Hans Strobl. Here is a link to one other story:


The good news is that I hope to have "Lemuria" and "Hanns Heinz Ewers Volume II" finished by Christmas. These will be coming out as Lulu editions since Side Real is more interested in my novels than short stories. Then of course it is Sorcerer's with Side Real and of course Vampire. Those are just waiting on me. That is quite a bit of translation work but I'm hoping voice activated typing is as good as it claims to be. I should be getting it this coming week some time.

I've also got "The Crystal Ball and other stories" by Strobl, "Gespensters im Sumpf" and "The Burning Mountain". Haven't had a chance to read them yet.

I've got to get HHE Volume II out first. It will contain a few stories that have been translated poorly by others as well as new material.
Some guaranteed new stories include:

The Last Will of Stanislawa de Asp
Eileen Carter

some I've translated earlier:

The Lost Monkey
Eleven Thousand Virgins and the Four Holy Three Kings
How Eleven Chinese Devoured Their Bride


I've just completed "The Hearts of Kings" but Tyler Davis is planning on doing a limited hand bound edition with leather covers and the original illustrations by Stefan Eggeler. There will not be very many of those made, less that seventy, I'm sure. Anyway that story will not be available elsewhere for awhile.

I will let everyone know when it is available if you are interested.
 
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Ahh hello, I didn't realise you were on this site.

Thank you very much for the translations of The Tomb of Pere Lachaise and The Bogumil-Stone. I've been fascinated with Strobl's fiction ever since I saw that article about him on Theo Paijmans' Black Sun Blog. Never thought I'd see anymore of his stories in English.

Please let us know when Lemuria is up for sale.
 
I am encouraging certain individuals to pursue reprints of the original issues and a new version of Der Orchideengarten, to which I myself would very much be interested in contributing new art for, inspired by the original books. We'll see if anything happens with that in time.
 
Is there anything that Ackerman didn't have? Those auction estimates strike me as being very low. I wouldn't be surprised if they fetched three times that much, at least.
 
Wow, those items are both stunning. I checked abebooks, they currently list 2 bound volumes of Orchideengarten, both priced above $5000.
 
This book was featured on the show "Hollywood Treasure" on the Sci Fi channel. I think it sold for 3,500 dollars in the auction. It came from the collection of Forrest J Ackerman, interesting that he owned a copy.
 
As of today, I don't see listings on Bookfinder.com for any price. Perhaps the volumes have retreated back into total scarcity for awhile?
 
I am interested in translating issues of Der Orchideengarten into English and publishing them in Magazine format if someone is interested in sending me scans.

I have already tried this with the first issue of "Simplicissimus", Germany's premier arts periodical.

Here is the link to that:

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/simplicissimus-vol-1-no-1/12788849

Actually I think Der Orchideengarten might sell very well in English! Please contact me at joebandel@hotmail.com if anyone is interested in working on this project with me! Or connect me with someone that can.

thanks

-joe
 
anarchistbanjo said:
I am interested in translating issues of Der Orchideengarten into English and publishing them in Magazine format if someone is interested in sending me scans.

I have already tried this with the first issue of "Simplicissimus", Germany's premier arts periodical.

Here is the link to that:

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/simplicissimus-vol-1-no-1/12788849

Actually I think Der Orchideengarten might sell very well in English! Please contact me at joebandel@hotmail.com if anyone is interested in working on this project with me! Or connect me with someone that can.

thanks

-joe
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I know it's been three years since the last post on this thread, but today by sheer accident, while searching for some articles in French on Thomas Owen, I came across a brilliant Belgian site with lots of scans of materials on fantastic literature. Among those scans I found all issues of Der Orchideengarten. I am quite stunned as I had absolutely no idea these were to be found on the internet.

Joe, I'm pretty much sure you've already located the scans on your own, but I'm sharing the link to the site, just in case:

IDES et Autres - IDESetAUTRES.be - Téléchargements
 
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